LIBERATING IRAQ — by Steve Nadis
Some food for thought on an autumnal election day: We went into Iraq supposedly to free it from a ruthless dictator at whose hands an estimated 200,000 people have perished. But a study published last month in the medical journal, The Lancet, found that about 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the March 2003 invasion and its bloody aftermath. I was always opposed to this particular exercise and was never sure what the Administration meant by “liberating” Iraq. Now, as we sift through the ruins of a failed, ill-conceived policy, we have a clearer picture as to what that term really means.
It’s the Vietnam syndrome (I won’t use the word “quagmire”) all over again: We had to destroy the country in order to save it.
Posted by
at
13:50:22
At least we built all those great schools Snake. True armed militias and suicide bombers will kill anyone who tries to attend, but they have monkey bars and slides and everything!
From what you’re saying, it sounds like a mixed blessing. Perhaps I was overly gloomy in my initial assessment.
Seems as if we never learn from our mistakes. And political affiliation has nothing to do with it. Wasn’t the Viet Nam war started by a Democratic president?
Bush has exhibited little or no intellectual curiosity or knowledge of history, offering support for the old saw: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Now there’s a woman as Speaker of the House. Let’s see how we can do? Can we “unelect” Bush? Sorry I’ve been away.
Hi WFW–good to hear from you! I hope we can essentially, effectively unelect him.
Oldroses, as I understand it, the war in Viet Nam was initiated in 1946 as a war of liberation from France. Then the French grew tired of the casualties & a toughening situation. That’s where we (the U.S.) stepped in, in the early 60s (though we’d had military ‘advisors’ there since 1950!) Then the idea of Limited Engagement arrived & the cast was set for the failure we saw unravel in 1975.
ANY country that INVADES another country that is not under imminent & immediate danger of attack itself by that country has never historically developed into anything but a mess. If this “false intelligence,” read by Colin Powell, hadn’t convinced enough Senators of an imminent threat, we wouldn’t be in the fix we’re in. Chalk another up for Propoganda.
&, Snake, I BELIEVE it’s:
“He who forgets his past is doomed to repeat it.” ~Santayana
Thank you MP for the history lesson. I’ve seen that quote many different ways–all better than the one I reported…